Double Coverage (19 page)

She took a seat on his couch and he followed her over. When she looked at him, she had tears in her eyes. Oh shit, what was going on? He grabbed her and pulled her on top of him, so she was sitting on top of his lap.

“Darlin’, what’s going on? Why are you going to cry?”

She looked at him with those silver eyes and he felt himself slipping, slipping into her trance. He couldn’t help it, any time he was with her he got lost in the world of Piper.

“Are you going to break up with me?” she asked in a tight voice.

Taken aback, Jax looked at her as if she was crazy. “What are you talking about? Why would I break up with you?”

“Well, you seemed angry and then you didn’t text me back. I thought that my being friends with Mason was something you couldn’t handle and you were going to break up with me.”

She was right about not being able to handle her being friends with Mason, but he wasn’t about to say that. He needed to be the good guy, like he always was, even though he wanted to forbid her to ever see the wide receiver again.

He gave her a light kiss on the lips and said, “I would never break up with you, sweetheart.” He touched his chest. “You own me…mind, body, and soul. I was just concerned, that’s all. Sometimes you don’t realize how incredibly gorgeous you are. I didn’t want Mason getting the wrong idea. I was just shocked, that’s all.”

She nodded. “I understand. I should have told you who I was hanging out with.”

He stopped her. “No, you didn’t have to. You can hang out with whoever you want; that’s your choice; they’re your friends. As long as your…male friends know you have a boyfriend at home who is madly in love with you.”

Piper’s eyes went wide at his confession. Then she grabbed his face and kissed him, deeply. As if she was pouring all her love into his body with one sweep of her lips and a flick of her tongue. He groaned in her mouth, as she pulled away.

“I love you, too. You are so beyond amazing, Jax. I can’t believe I was able to meet such a kind, caring and sexy man like you.”

“You think I’m sexy?” he asked with a grin, while rubbing her thigh.

“Mmm, how could I not?” She brought her hand up and started rubbing his bare chest, putting his little guy straight into attention. He was already geared up when he laid eyes on Piper, but now that she was kissing him all over and rubbing his chest, he was ready to seal their love.

He brought her head down to his and made sure she knew how much he loved her. He kissed her, sending bolts of electricity through his body. She touched him all over and finally straddled his legs, deepening their kiss a little more. She felt amazing in his arms, like she was meant to be his. She slowly rocked her hips on top of his. With every stroke of contact their hips made, he felt his sensations heighten even more.

“Darlin’, if you keep doing that, I’m going to explode in my pants.”

“Well, we don’t want that, do we?” she said with a wicked grin.

She gave him a wink and shimmied down his body until she was kneeling between his legs. He gulped and started breathing heavily when she pulled down his pants and his erection sprang out, looking willing and ready for any kind of action. Jax wanted to take charge and sweep her off her feet, but the moment her lips met his erection, every last thought he ever had completely left his body. He was literally floating on air right now.

He had never felt anything as good as Piper’s soft lips wrapped around his hard dick, strike that, his dick deep inside her felt better, but what she was doing with her lips at the moment was almost as perfect.

She squeezed, sucked, licked, grabbed and hummed on every part of his manhood. A sheen of sweat broke out on his body and he knew he was going to explode, and quickly.

“Fuck that feels good…ahh.” He wanted to tell her to stop, to hop on him, but he couldn’t; he was way too close and he was ready to finish. Right before he thought he was going to fall over the edge, she got up and stripped for him. Her shirt was the first to go, followed by her shoes and shorts, leaving her in a light blue lingerie set. She looked exquisite and, if it wasn’t for his burning need to release, he would have taken more time to explore the sight in front of him. Instead he grabbed her and ran her into his bedroom. She giggled the whole time as they tripped and ran into walls, trying to make it to his bed. He tore the rest of her clothes off and threw her on the bed, while grabbing a condom.

She slid it on for him while he spread her legs. In one big swoop, he planted himself in what was his. Piper was his. She told him she loved him. Three perfect little words changed him in a matter of seconds. He was devoted to this woman and would do anything to make sure she stayed in his life.

“God, I love you so much,” he told her.

She smiled up at him. “I love you so much, too. I didn’t think I could ever love someone this fast, but I do. I love you.”

Jax picked up the pace of his thrusts and felt his entire body start to tingle, he was going to lose it any second, but he didn’t want to go it alone. He ran his hand up Piper’s body and tweaked her nipple; she screamed out loud and her walls contracted around him, squeezing Jax for every last drop he had. He was completely milked dry and spent. He didn’t think he could move after such an explosion, but he slowly got off Piper so he didn’t crush her. He pulled her in close and held onto her tight, kissing her temple and rubbing her exposed stomach.

“You’re amazing,” she said.

“I could argue that you are just as amazing.”

She chuckled. “I’m not going to deny you the compliment.”

“I hope you know you can hang out with who you want, just please make sure you’re careful. Any man would love to be with you, but I want them to know that there’s only one man for you.”

Piper was silent for a second, as if she was debating something, but then he realized she must have been asleep. So instead of pestering her, he snuggled up close and went to sleep as well.

***

Piper lay there, wrapped in Jax’s arms, full of love, but was unable to answer him when he said there was only one man for her. There really should only be one man for her, so why did Mason’s face keep flashing in her mind when she was making love to Jax?

She felt so guilty for such thoughts that she almost took off to Jax’s bathroom so she could ease the knot in her stomach. She had never felt so sick before. She loved Jax, more than anything. She didn’t think she could ever love a man like she loved Jax, but she did. He was so safe, comfortable, and caring. When she was around him, she felt like nothing bad could happen to her, but that didn’t stop her from thinking about another man at the same time.

The baseball game was a bad idea; if she was having thoughts about Mason, then there was only one thing she could do. Stop whatever she was doing with him before something bad happened. Friends was most likely not going to work for them, especially if she thought about him while she was having sex with the man she loved, her boyfriend. She had to keep her distance. She would still talk to him at the bar because she didn’t want to make him feel bad, but that was it. No more outings where they could be close and intimate.

The feeling of Mason’s hand in hers at the baseball game crossed her mind. It felt so right. How was that possible? How could two men feel so right to her? She was so confused, but one thing she knew was that she loved Jax. She didn’t love Mason. She barely knew Mason. Therefore, she needed to stick with her plan and call things off. She was done. She was going to focus on Jax now. Jax was her man and she was going to keep it that way.

Chapter 10

“Get your damn head out of your ass Dashel and catch the God damn ball! A fucking butterfly could do a better job than you.”

Mason ran back to his position on the field, ignoring everything that spewed out of Coach Ryan’s mouth. The offensive line had stayed at practice later than everyone else on the team, once again, working on routes and making sure their turns and jukes were precise. Mason could feel the burn in his legs and couldn’t wait to stick the bottom half of his body in the ice bath, even though the ice bath would feel like a million needles piercing his skin. He was so damn sore.

Mason looked over at his coach, who was looking at the plays on his clipboard and discussing with Jesse, their quarterback, the routes he wanted to run. Mason didn’t know how much more he could take from his coach. He knew the man was new and young, but he didn’t think he was going to be a giant douche and work the players until they were practically six feet under. They had a week until their first pre-season game, then the season would be underway. Mason knew he was more than ready; but if he didn’t get a break soon, he wasn’t going to be physically ready for their games. He needed a little bit of time off to rest his body.

“Run green forty six again and this time, actually run to your spot Dashel. We know you’re a pretty-boy, but we don’t need you prancing around on the field like a Nancy.”

Mason bit down on his mouth guard and warned himself not to make any kind of comment toward his coach, now was not the time.

Jesse counted out and the center snapped the ball. Mason ran straight toward the end zone and then quickly hooked to his right where the ball smacked him dead in the chest and then bounced onto the practice turf. Shit.

“God Damn it!!! What the fuck is wrong with you? You are a worthless pile of shit, you know that? Why the hell are we paying you an obscene amount of money to catch a God damn ball, when all you do is let it hit you in the chest? Jesse, I’m afraid we’re going to have to start having you run the ball to him and toss it gently. Mason can’t handle catching such accurate and precise throws. Shall we send him back to pee wee ball?” Their coach looked around and all the players had their heads lowered, either playing with their straps or kicking the turf with their cleats.

“Is no one going to answer me?”

Mason felt his fist starting to curl and an itch to punch his coach square in the face crept over his body. He started to raise his hand when Jesse chimed in. “Coach, we can’t keep doing this. You’re running these guys ragged.”

“You seem to be doing fine.”

“I’m not sprinting up and down the field, being knocked around by my teammates. If you keep running us this hard, you’re not going to have an offensive line come the first game of the season.”

Coach Ryan got right in Jesse’s face. “Well, at least one of you is man enough to say something.” He looked around the field and said, “Get the fuck out of here and take the next three days off. I better see some improvement when you get back here.” Coach eyed Mason, but Mason turned away before he lost his ever-loving mind.

Mason shucked off his gear, grabbed his phone and headed for the ice bath. He didn’t want to talk to anyone. He just wanted to isolate himself. The last couple of days had been hell. He tried contacting Piper to see if she wanted to hang out, but she either didn’t answer him or was busy. When he went to visit her at work, she barely spoke to him.

Her early disappearance from the baseball game a few days ago disturbed him. He thought they were having a great time, until her phone went off. He wondered if it was the guy she was seeing. Of course it was, what else could it have been? She didn’t speak to her parents and she really only talked to Hannah, so that only left one other person, the other man.

The thought of Piper with another man made him want to bury his fist down someone’s throat. Piper belonged with him and only him. Why couldn’t she see them together the way he did? When they were at the game, he thought he was making a lot of headway with the slight touches, knowing glances between them and, at the end, she was holding his hand. He felt so genuinely connected with her, more than he ever did with Brooke.

Ryker busted through the doors of the training room and took up the ice bath next to Mason. “Dude, what the hell is your deal? I know it’s not because you’re tired.”

Mason shrugged, he didn’t want to get into it with Ryker and, contrary to what Ryker thought, Mason was tired. He was tired from the sleepless nights he’d been having from constantly thinking about Piper and her boyfriend together. He wondered if she thought about him the way she consumed his mind on a daily basis. He thought that maybe she did think about him, but ever since she shut Mason out, he was starting to think she didn’t have any kind of feelings for him, like he did for her.

“It’s not Piper, is it?” Mason didn’t say anything, giving Ryker the conclusion he was looking for. “Come on, man; you can’t let her affect you like that. It’s not like anything was really going to happen anyway; you two are like water and oil…you don’t mix well. Unlike me and Hannah, now there’s a good couple.”

“You are delusional, man. Hannah is never going to break it off with her boyfriend or soon-to-be fiancé. You’re fishing around in the wrong lake.”

“Speak for yourself. You’re trying to make a girl fall for you who started off hating you and is currently in a serious committed relationship with another guy.”

“It’s not that serious,” Mason said, trying to convince himself.

“Oh yeah? Hannah told me she told the guy she loved him.”

Mason couldn’t feel the piercing cold water touch his body anymore because all feeling left his nerves at hearing Piper was in love with another man. His lungs seized up and all breath escaped his chest.

Piper was in love with another man? How could that be? Lexi and Jake’s wedding wasn’t that long ago. He thought about their wedding and it was about a month and a half ago. Was that enough time to fall in love with someone she didn’t know? Of course it was. Mason was terrified that he had fallen in love with Piper himself. He wasn’t going to address those current feelings, but he knew it was possible.